Previously, the Sheriff’s Office had released few details of Johnson’s medical condition — saying only that the sheriff suffered a “cardiac event” and was undergoing “corrective procedures.”

Officers said Wednesday it was a heart attack followed by bypass surgery. Chief Deputy Tim Britt declined to say how many arteries were involved in the bypass.

He said the Sheriff’s Office didn’t want to specify Johnson’s problem as a heart attack until doctors completed an assessment of him. Johnson is hospitalized at Duke University Medical Center.

“We’re just asking the community to the keep the sheriff and his family in their thoughts and prayers,” Britt said.

Britt said he visited Johnson at the hospital Wednesday and his spirits are good. Britt said Johnson is expected to make a full recovery. He said the Sheriff’s Office is managing well in the sheriff’s absence.

“The people of Alamance County can rest assured they’re being watched out for,” Britt said.

He declined to say if Johnson had been moved out of the hospital’s intensive care unit. Officials at the hospital said Sunday that Johnson was in intensive care. Since then, the hospital has not released any information about the sheriff.

Johnson, 62, is serving his third term as sheriff — first elected in 2002, then re-elected in 2006 and 2010. He has been re-elected by wide margins on both occasions. Johnson is Alamance County’s first Republican sheriff since 1954.